Prosodic

Features of
Speech
ENGLISH 8
What are
PROSODIC
FEATURES
of speech?
Prosodic Features of
Speech
• features that appear when we put sounds
together in connected speech
• successful communication depends as much
on them
1. PITCH
• highness or lowness of voice
• English pitch has four levels: low,
middle, high, and very high

When we raise our pitch, we emphasize

a certain word. This is called inflection.
2. STRESS
• emphasis we give to a syllable
(syllable stress) or to words in a
sentence (word/sentence stress)
The resultant pattern of rising and
falling rising and falling sounds is
called intonation.
3. VOLUME
• the loudness or softness
of sound
4. PROJECTION
• the ability to adjust the volume of
your voice in relation to the size of
your audience
5. SPEED
refers to how fast or how
slowly one delivers the
words the speaker says
Rate measures the speed of speech by
counting the number of words spoken
within a minute. The most effective
speaking rate is 140-160 words per
minute.
Thank
You!
the ability to adjust the volume of your voice
in relation to the size of your audience